Learning Objectives

Essay 1

In the first part of our discussion about understanding your organization and the context of your leadership, we stressed the importance of a leader's understanding of the organization's culture and communicating that to your team. An organization's culture is in large part formed by its mission, vision, values, and history. These are important aspects for a leader to understand and communicate to his or her team in order to facilitate a sense of pride and ownership in the team as they advance the organization's goals.

Every organization has a mission. It is the organization's purpose and its reason for being. This is generally encapsulated in your organization's mission statement. Your organization's mission statement is a great place to start when you are learning about its culture. This statement gives purpose to the organization and summarizes its vision in a succinct way. A good mission statement will tell you the opportunities or needs your organization addresses, how those will be addressed, and briefly states the principles that guide the organization's work. These aspects of your organization's mission will provide you with the first tools you need in understanding the culture and fitting into a leadership role.

The second aspect you should look at when evaluating the best way to serve as a leader in your organization is to look at the organization's vision. Your organization's vision is a general statement of direction encompassing where the organization is going — and the desired end result once it gets there. Unlike the mission, the vision is not necessarily measurable, but it is important in establishing a commonality between all members of the organization. When you as a leader have a firm understanding of your organization's vision, you can help instill that vision in your team members, creating a more cohesive workplace and increasing motivation to work together.

A successful organization should establish values by which members are supposed to abide. In the absence of organizational values, or if those values are not well known, each staff member will follow his or her own values, which could lead to behaviors the organization does not want to encourage. A good leader will be familiar with the organization's values and help educate others about those values. This will help keep everyone's behavior appropriate and add to the sense of camaraderie within the organization, as team members help each other follow the organizational values.

The fourth aspect a leader should look at when evaluating his or her position as a leader within an organization is to look at its history. Your organization's history is important. It has learned from past failures, and has grown through past successes. Educating your team members about your organization's history helps instill a sense of pride and accomplishment in working for the organization. It helps motivate team members to rise to challenges and make their own mark on the organization's history. By gaining a thorough understanding of your organization's mission, vision, values, and history, you will be able to lead within the organization's culture and ...